


Hold your breath and wait for me

by LovelyDreamer77



Category: Forrest Gump (1994)
Genre: First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, Love, M/M, Rare Fandoms, Rare Pairings, Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-10
Updated: 2017-09-10
Packaged: 2018-12-26 02:54:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12049827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LovelyDreamer77/pseuds/LovelyDreamer77
Summary: Lieutenant Dan shows up on Forrest’s doorstep three weeks before he was supposed to be married.Everything that happens afterward is uphill from there.





	Hold your breath and wait for me

**Author's Note:**

> This is the product of watching Forrest Gump before bed and then being unable to sleep until I wrote something for it. First fic back in a while, should be interesting

Lieutenant Dan shows up on Forrest’s doorstep three weeks before the older man was supposed to be married.

He doesn’t talk about why he left at first and Forrest doesn’t ask, just helps him move the few suitcases he brought into the spare room.

Forrest Junior asks the first night at dinner but the only answer he gets is in the form of Dan’s woeful stare and his father’s reproachful look.

Forrest may be slow to understand people at first but he’s known Dan too long not to know when he’s hurting and when it’s best to keep quiet.

It takes a week before Dan opens up about his sudden arrival. The sun has long since set and Junior has been fed, washed and sent to bed, the two friends sitting quietly on the front porch.

They don’t normally talk much during these times so it comes as a surprise to Forrest when he hears Dan’s steady rumble, too focused on the moths fluttering around the porch light to pay much attention at first.

“Susan left.” Dan said simply, not looking over at Forrest even as the younger man turned to stare at his profile in the dim light.

“I’m sorry bout that. Do you know why?”

“No”. Silence fell between the two once again. Not uncomfortable but filled with an unasked question. Do you think she left because I’m crippled? He didn’t feel he needed to hear the answer.

“Hey, Forrest, you ever regret falling in love with Jenny?”

Forrest doesn’t response right away, letting the question hang suspended in the pensive quiet of moonlight. “How do you mean regret it? If you mean wish I hadn’t of then no.”

The older man shifts restlessly, rocking the old bench the two were perched on. It had been there since before Forrest lived in the house and it would probably be there after, a hulking mass of oak that creaked under pressure but had yet to break.

“Not even when it hurt? When she left and broke your heart?”

“Not even then Lieutenant Dan. It may have hurt but it made me happy while it lasted, she made me happy.”

Dan grunted but remained quiet. He may have been a prick in the past, especially to the man sitting beside him, but he wouldn’t be the one to ruin Forrest’s memories. He didn’t agree with the way the blonde had treated the kind-hearted man, didn’t like that she had hurt him and left him and never apologised. It wasn’t his place to say this to Forrest. Wasn’t his right to take her down from the pedestal.

The next morning Dan never said anything to Forrest about their conversation but he sat down to breakfast with the household for the first time since he arrived and spent the morning helping Junior build a raceway with his blocks.

Forrest smiled at the cheerful sight, joining the duo on the living room floor to race model cars around the makeshift track.

He didn’t point out the matching smile on Dan’s lips, content to see the former soldier finally settling into his new home. Because that’s what Forrest’s house was, for as long as Dan wanted it.

Several months passed by in this vein, Dan fitting into the Gump dynamic like he had always been there. His newfound happiness was reflected in his daily life as he helped cook, clean and take care of Junior, happily spending his nights sitting with Forrest and reflecting on everything that had brought him to this point.

Summer dawned early on the South and with it the rising temperatures. Forrest took to working out in the sun during the day while Junior was at school. Dan’s new habit of sitting out in the shade and enjoying the breeze coincided with this as he found himself in prime position to watch the man tough it out beneath the blazing sun.

It was as the older man watched Forrest stretch out into push up position and he found himself admiring muscles beneath sweat slicked skin, following a bead of sweat as it ran into the waistband of Forrest’s cargo pants that horror dawned.

_Oh. Oh no. When had this happened_.

He quickly heaved himself onto his new prosthetics, wavering as he regained his balance and missing the worried look Forrest shot him, before speed walking back into the house.

The door closed with a sharp click and he leant heavily on the faded grain, eyes wide with panic. _This wasn’t supposed to happen. Forrest was a friend. A good friend. Not someone to infect with his desires._

Resolving to keep his distance Dan strode resolutely up the stairs, hands clenched into white knuckled fists as his bedroom door slammed shut behind him, never knowing just how quickly his plan would be derailed.

Thunder howled outside the windows, rain clattering noisily on the roof tiles and hammering into the window panes, heavy dark clouds obscuring the partial moon and blocking the stars.

Forrest and Dan sat quietly in the parlour, the atmosphere so different to their previous night-time moments that is was almost painful.

Dan stared sternly into the open fire, hands pressed into his legs where skin met prosthetic. The cold draft was biting into the flesh, sending new waves of pain through the ravaged flesh. He didn’t say anything, afraid a single word would crumble the barrier standing between himself and Forrest.

So unyielding was his gaze he missed the considering gaze of Forrest, the younger man not staring but assessing, his eyes roaming the shadowed features of the former Lieutenant.

Remaining silent Forrest stood from his spot in the plush armchair, moving to sit silently beside Dan on the worm couch and sending the man scooting towards the armrest.

“You’re in pain.” It wasn’t a question, it was a statement. For once Forrest left no room for any mistake to be made about his thoughts.

“It’s not that bad”. Dan snapped, the pain already made him irritated, and the distracting presence of Forrest’s warmth by his side put him further on edge.

Forrest sighed, “Yes, it is.”

Ignoring Dan’s startled gasp, he turned and grabbed the other man’s hands, shifting them away from the site of pain. With a care and patience, he showed mainly to his son Forrest determinedly began unfastening the prosthetic.

“Please no”. His hands shaking Dan gripped Forrest’s own steady hands in his, halting the movements the man had made to remove the prosthetic. He didn’t look the other man in the eyes, keeping his gaze fixed on their joined hands.

Dan didn't want anyone to see it, never mind the fact it was Forrest who picked him up off the jungle floor, Forrest who lay beside him in hospital as he screamed, Forrest who saw him at the lowest points in his life.

He had already lost one person because of his legs, he couldn't lose another.

Couldn't lose Forrest.

Forrest was slow on the uptake for most everything in life, he knew this and he embraced it but this. This had been building for so long that Forrest had already passed the point of understanding and long since entered acceptance.

Wrapping his fingers more securely around Dan’s hands he tilted his head just slightly, leaning forward to nose gently along the other man’s jaw, coaxing him to lift his head.

Pulling back Forrest glanced into the other man’s eyes, swallowing heavily at the mix of fear, pain and hope he saw.

Giving Dan plenty of time to pull away he moved in again, lips ghosting across Dan’s cheek, resting gently on his waiting lips, soft and warm, eyelashes fluttering as he pressed into the kiss.

After a few seconds of no response Forrest slowly moved back, his heart sinking as he made to let go of Dan’s hands. Instead of the rejection Forrest expected the older man tightened his grip, sitting forward slightly to slot their lips together more fully, pressing into the chaste kiss.

Neither drew back when the kiss ended, their lips centimetres apart as they brushed gently against one another, breath mingling in the scant space between their faces.

“Let me help, please.” Forrest whispered, hands unclasping from Dan’s to gently massage the gap between prosthetic and skin, his heated touch a balm to the wounded flesh.

Dan gasped, lips still tingling from the kiss as he nodded slowly. “Just with the pain?” he murmured, watching as Forrest continued unclasping the prosthetic, setting it gently against the coffee table.

“With whatever you need.” Forrest said, moving to the other, his hands surer as he unclasped it the same as the first and settled it with the other.

“For how long?”

“For as long as you need Lieutenant Dan.”

“I like the sound of that”.

“Me too”.

That was the last time either spoke that night, Dan leaning forward to clasp Forrest’s face between his hands and draw him into another kiss as the storm raged on through the night.


End file.
